Z/Web

Really cool documentary about an idiot bartender who was made into an overnight celebrity when Hollywood bought his screenplay for $1 million and set him up to direct it. The guy was such a know-it-all he alienated everyone, friends, family, and colleagues, and in the end his film barely got made and he ended up with squat. The film (The Boondock Saints) was a disaster and a financial failure and a classic example of how to commit career suicide. Hilarious.

Author: H. G. Wells

I saw this book at the Science Fiction Museum in Seattle and later bought a copy at Powell’s in Portland; I’d never heard of it and it sounded interesting. Wells’ idea is to wonder what would happen if growth would continue unabated instead of in fits and starts? He postulates a formula of food that causes this continuous growth, with the result of giant people, chickens, rats, wasps, and more. That’s exciting and all, but Wells’ real focus is on how Bigness changes society, and the discrimination and inevitable conflicts between giant and small people. Fascinating. It’s a little hard to read because of some of the obscure language issues, and obviously much of the science and setting is dated. It made me realize how much the world has changed since Wells’ time: even something as simple as 24-hour television news networks makes a huge difference in how quickly news spreads — surely today giant wasps or babies would make headlines overnight! Once again, Wells’ story peters out with a wimpy non-ending, but then story-telling was different back in those days and perhaps people didn’t expect action-oriented endings. This one basically ends implying there will be war between the species (giant and small) but doesn’t get into the details of such an event (which would have been interesting). The book takes a rather distant, scientific view which can be dry and uninteresting at times. Still, I liked the book better than much of Wells’ other stuff.